Happy Friendship Day
by AirNationOracle
Summary: On Valentine's Day, an unlikely friendship is born from the ashes of a failed relationship and former friendship. Spoilers for 3x13 "Heart"


**Title**: Happy Friendship Day

**Rated**: K+

**Writing Time**: 02/15/2012

**Pairing(s)**: Kurt/Shane (Skane!friendship)

**Warnings**: Heartbreaking moments, unlikely friendship (and I mean _friendship_) pairing, light swearing and other not-so-kind language, slight depression, some angst, a touch of character (Finn, Mercedes, Sam) bashing, lots and lots of tears, repressed feelings, some anger and anti-Valentine's Day propaganda.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Glee. If I did, Chris Colfer/Kurt would get much more screen time and Chord Overstreet/Sam would NOT be leaving the show! (I still don't own Glee but he's coming back so it's better than nothing). That, and Chord would never leave my bedroom, but that's a story for another time (and one I'd be too selfish to share ;) So without further ado, on with the smoochies! ^^

**Summary**: An unlikely friendship is kindled between two very different boys on the most cliché of days in the Roman calendar.

**Author's Note**: Okay, this prompt popped into my head after watching _Glee_'s "Heart" episode on Valentine's Day. I honestly cannot tell you what was going on in my mind when this idea came to me but instead of ignoring it, I decided to run with it. Personally I blame the wine I was drinking but I'm not about to complain because I'm rather pleased with how this turned out. The only thing I'm nervous about is this is my first-ever _Glee_ fic where I'm _bashing_ Sam. Sam! The character I've come to really love and admire for everything he is (or _was_ as is the case) in S2. Then I remember it's S3 Sam I'm bashing and it makes me feel slightly more okay about doing so. But I hate that there's a distinction between two seasons' worth of Sam that actually makes it okay to love one (S2) and then hate the other (S3). Betaed by me; if you happen to spot some (if any) mistakes, please don't hesitate to point them out via review or PM. Thank You!

**Dedication**: For Shane Tinsley. I know he's a fictional character and all but being cheated on such an awful experience that I feel for him. And of course, to the wonderful Whitney Houston (9 August 1963 – 11 February 2012) We Will Always Love You!

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><p>Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day. Just hearing the two words put together made Kurt Hummel want to puke. He stood in front of his locker with a blank glaze in his eyes, staring at his calculus book for the last ten minutes. The bell had rung half an hour ago and the school was completely empty; why was he still there?<p>

Ever since that giant gorilla had delivered him cards, balloons and flowers, Kurt's mind had been going wild with– you know, he didn't even know what. He appreciated the romantic gesture on Blaine's part, signing those cute little notes _Your Secret Admirer_ but then the truth dawned on Kurt: it wasn't Blaine's handwriting. That's when he realized it had to be a joke. He, Blaine, his lovable Brittany and Santana were the only gay people in school. So _who_ would be sending him anonymous Valentine's Day cards if not as a cruel joke?

Last year, he was totally friend-zoned on Valentine's Day because Blaine was metaphorically blind as to how much Kurt liked him. This year, he actually _was_ blind and wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon. Kurt had been looking forward to Sugar's party because he planned on sneaking Blaine out but the curly-haired boy said his doctor told him he needed to rest up following his surgery.

_I really hate Valentine's Day!_

Snapping out of his mental retrieve, Kurt just shut his locker without removing any of his books. With his Valentine's Day plans crushed, all he had now to look forward to was a tub of ice cream and a scented bubble bath. Oh, well. A bubble bath wasn't _too_ bad. There was always ways to amuse oneself in a bathtub.

Grinning lightly at his realization, Kurt started walking down the hall until a whimper stopped him dead in his tracks. Slightly put off by the sound and then surprised because he thought he was the only person left in the school, Kurt cupped his ear and tried to find the source of the sound.

_That's not whimpering. Someone's crying._

The closer Kurt approached the astronomy room, the louder the _crying_ sounds got. Standing at the door, he debated whether or not to barge in or just leave. Realizing it was already too late to turn his back on whoever was in there, Kurt drew in a breath and gently twisted the doorknob, stepping into the solely occupied classroom.

He thought possibly Artie was sobbing in private after being turned down so coldly by Sugar for Rory; he didn't expect to see Shane Tinsley sitting at a desk with tears streaming freely down his face. It was such an odd picture: a hulking big football player sitting alone in a room unashamedly crying his eyes out. The sight was almost hard to look at.

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked in a quiet, shaky voice.

Shane's head snapped up and looked at Kurt. The brunette was prepared to run just in case Shane didn't want to be bothered or if he turned out to be like all the other football players at McKinley.

"No," Shane confessed, fresh tears falling from his eyes.

_Okay, didn't expect that._

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why Mercedes Jones' boyfriend was sitting in a dark classroom crying (after all, gossip got around school faster than Brittany did before she and Santana became official) but Kurt would rather Shane talk to him instead of making Kurt fill in the blanks with hunches and hall rumors he'd picked up on earlier in the day.

Cautiously, Kurt crossed the threshold of the classroom and walked over to the unoccupied desk beside Shane, sitting down. He wanted to reach out a comforting hand to Shane's shaking shoulder but decided against it. Just because the jock didn't yell at him or call him names or shout for him to leave didn't mean he'd take kindly to the most gay student in school offering him physical comfort. "What's the matter?"

The jock looked up for a moment before drying his eyes off on the sleeves of his letterman.

_Eww!_ Kurt's inner supermodel screamed.

Shane sucked in a breath, exhaling shakily. "My girlfriend cheated on me."

Kurt did his best to look surprised but realized it wouldn't work since he knew what Sam and Mercedes had been up to ever since the blonde came back and moved into his house so he settled for sympathetic. "I'm sorry."

"So it's true then?"

"What's true?"

"They've been at this for weeks," Shane supplied, clearing his throat.

Kurt was stunned. He didn't mean to let on that he knew all about Sam's wooing or Mercedes' resilience to fight him off but Kurt figured Shane must be more a lot more perceptive than most jocks in the school. "I'm sorry," he apologized again.

Shane dismissed his apology. "It's cool, dude."

The fashionista was stunned that Shane was acting so nonchalant after Kurt outed himself knowing that his housemate and Shane's girlfriend were fooling around behind his back. Kurt wanted to tell him when he first found out what was going on with his former best friend but couldn't. He knew he didn't have the right because he didn't know Shane and if he were honest, the burly jock kind of scared him. If he were being even more honest with himself, it wasn't Shane he was scared of but the letterman jacket the footballer wore. Even though he didn't know the boy, Kurt hoped his words would be enough to at least help him.

"For what's it worth, I really am sorry."

He nodded, not looking as heartbroken as he did when Kurt first stepped in the room. Kurt was glad; despite feeling incredibly awkward about seeing this hulking football player so down in the dumps, he was feeling better that Shane at least wasn't crying anymore.

"I wanted so badly to believe that she wouldn't be doing what kids were saying in the hall she was," Shane said, breaking the slightly tense silence that filled the room.

Kurt didn't know how to respond to that so he simply nodded, visually encouraging him to continue. "I thought people were just being cruel because she was dating a football player. And when she told me—"

At this, fresh tears sprang from his eyes and startled Kurt. Not really caring how the bigger boy would respond, the countertenor got out of his seat and ambled over to Shane. Inhaling a breath and praying to a god he didn't believe in, Kurt hesitantly set his hand down on the jock's shoulder. Shane stopped crying long enough to look the smaller boy in the eye and shoot him a watery smile.

The brunette released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding in and returned Shane's smile weakly. He was thrilled the giant football player wasn't going to hurt him for reaching out and trying to offer him some comfort; maybe not _all_ football players were Neanderthals after all.

"When she told me it what she did it was like a punch in the heart," he finished, once again drying his eyes off on his jacket sleeves.

Kurt ignored his inner voice's yelling at what Shane did to his letterman and gently rubbed circularly into the footballer's shoulder.

"Why did she do this, Kurt?"

Shane's question stunned Kurt; more so, Shane knowing his name and using it (not calling him Porcelain, Hummel, princess, fag, or queer) but actually asking him a question and using his _name_ surprised Kurt the most.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I wish I did but I don't. I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing," Shane ordered gently. "This wasn't your fault."

"I feel like it is though," Kurt countered, his hand now resting on Shane's shoulder instead of doing anything. "I wanted to tell you because I knew before the entire school did but I didn't. I share just as much blame for this."

Brown eyes focused in on glasz and Shane asked: "Then why didn't you?"

"I-I-I felt it-t-t-t wasn't my place to say anything," Kurt faltered, hating how shaky his voice got at the admission to Shane's blunt question.

Shane nodded. "See? It wasn't your fault."

Kurt blanched. He was right, the fashionista knew. But he didn't want to admit it because he still felt so guilty about not saying anything, even though the decision to do so had ping-ponged in his head for months. Now he really regrets not saying a word to Shane.

The brunette just nodded, knowing Shane wasn't going to let him shoulder the blame. Maybe it was best he stopped feeling guilty. Fact is: it was out to the whole school what kind of people Sam and Mercedes were.

"Did Mercy ever tell you she had still feelings for Sam?"

His head shook from side to side. "No. Until the rumors started flying through school, I had no idea they dated, even back in May when we were still friends. I was shocked to learn that she and Sam were together and she never told me."

Shane accepted Kurt's answer. It was true he didn't know the boy well, but Mercedes told him (when he asked about her friends) that Kurt was mostly always honest about everything. Shane felt Kurt was being honest with him.

One thing stuck out in his mind. "Even _when_ you were friends? I thought you two still were."

Again, Kurt's head shook from side to side. "We'd been drifting apart for a while but after she joined the Troubletones, that spelled the end of Kurtcedes."

"Kurtcedes?"

"Oh, it was our Glee Club name. Friendship couples and real couples got portmanteaus. Mercedes' and mine was Kurtcedes."

Shane chuckled a little at that. "That's cute. But why did you drift apart? I thought you and her were the best of friends."

"Key word: were, past tense. She was so busy during the summer and I didn't know why. When I saw you two together at the Lima Bean, I was hurt that she was seeing someone and didn't tell me. When my boyfriend and I got together, I told her everything. It just… really got me that she felt she couldn't do the same. Then I learned she and Sam were together before she met you, making it two boyfriends she didn't tell me she was dating."

"Isn't he a transfer?"

Kurt shook his head for the third time that conversation. "No. Sam and his family moved to Kentucky. From what I've been able to gather, she started dating you three days after he moved."

It was Shane's turn to nod. "So I was the rebound," he said to himself.

"Don't—"

"It's true, Kurt," Shane admitted with no harshness in his voice. "I didn't know she dated Sam before but now everything makes sense."

The soprano didn't know what to say so he kept his mouth shut.

"You like him, don't you?"

Shane's voice startled him back, his hand flying away from the boy's shoulder. Kurt was flabbergasted that Shane would have the audacity to ask him that; his silence was betraying him and he knew it.

"You know I've been honest with you, Kurt," Shane spoke quietly.

That did it. It was true, it was true and Kurt knew it. Here Shane was: a boy who found out his girlfriend had been cheating on him, a jock who instinctively should hate Kurt and his kind on sight. Instead, Shane poured his broken heart out to a boy he didn't know when he didn't have to and now Kurt knew he needed to do the same.

"Alright," Kurt began, sitting back in the seat he'd abandoned. "I met Sam a year ago, back when Mercedes and I were still the best of friends. In Glee, we were supposed to find a duet partner for a competition. I took one look at Sam and just _knew_ he played for Team Gay. I mean, no straight boy dyed his hair Linda Evangelista blonde circa 1993." At that he started laughing. "When I told Mercedes that, she said 'Please. Circa 2010.'"

Shane chuckled a little, surprised someone else knew who Linda Evangelista was besides him.

"Anyway, a lot of people assume that because I'm gay and thought Sam was too I wanted a boyfriend. I did, but I didn't want Sam. Not then, at least. When I asked him to sing with me, I was hoping we could be friends. Mercedes was a good friend when we were together, but I wanted a guy friend because then I'd have someone who could _better_ understand what I was going through."

"Wait," Shane interjected. "You were supposed to find a partner and sing a duet?" Kurt nodded. "Aren't duets usually love songs?"

"Most of them are but not all of them," Kurt responded.

"So what song would you have sung?" Shane wondered.

Kurt was taken aback; no one wanted to know what duet he would've chosen had he and Sam sung together. It almost brought a tear to his eye but he held them in. "Have you ever heard of a musical called _Flower Drum Song_?"

"Yeah," Shane exclaimed brightly, forgetting all about his sadness. "It's my mom's favorite!"

"Really?" Kurt asked with the same excitement.

"Yeah, dude! Juanita Hall was her favorite actress. _Chop Suey _is her favorite song from that movie. Is that what you and Sam would've sung?"

The countertenor shook his head, giggling lightly and still very much in disbelief someone knew _Flower Drum Song_ like he did. Even Mercedes didn't when they first met. "No. I wanted us to sing _One Hundred Million Miracles_. I know it's not a duet but we could've figured something out."

Shane nodded, a light smile on his face. "I could see that. So what happened? Did you sing with him?"

For the fourth time, Kurt shook his head no. "My stepbrother convinced both of us that two boys singing together wouldn't be any good for Sam's reputation. If I cared so much about Glee, I'd learn that Sam wouldn't want my advances." Kurt started crying a little, his voice wavering. "I know everyone thinks I wanted to be his boyfriend but I didn't. I _just_ wanted to be Sam's friend. So to answer your question: no. We didn't sing together. I broke off our duet so he could 'sing with someone the world deemed more appropriate'. He sang with Quinn and pretty much proved he was straight and I sang by myself."

"That's cold, dude," Shane replied sympathetically. "How did you sing a duet by yourself?"

"Have you ever seen _Victor/Vitoria_?"

Shane shook his head. "I've heard of it though. What did you sing from it?"

Kurt smiled gently, remembering how charged he felt during that solo performance. "_Le Jazz Hot_. You should listen to it."

"I'll have to. But you know you didn't answer my earlier question."

Kurt arched an eyebrow. "What was the question?"

"Do you like Sam?"

His eyes went wide because yes, that was Shane's original question. He _had_ intended to answer it but got sidetracked. He shook his head, not bothering to remember now how many times he'd done so. "I _liked _him, yes, I admit that. But that was a long time ago and if anything now, I know just what kind of person he is. Quinn cheated on him with her ex-boyfriend and they broke up. Santana, before she came out of the closet, started seeing someone else while she was still with Sam. I had my boyfriend at the time and when they broke up I couldn't help being attracted to him. Nothing ever came of it though. Sam's straight and he always will be. I just never thought of him as a cheater."

Shane reached out a hand and rested it on Kurt's. "Guess we're both in the same boat, huh?"

Kurt snorted under his breath because yeah, Shane was right. While he was completely devoted to Blaine, he knew a little piece of his heart would always be with the boy with the lemon juice hair.

"What are you going to do?" Kurt asked, surprisingly not bothered by Shane's hand on top of his.

The footballer took in a breath. "I think we're going to break up. I know she could have been doing more with Sam than kissing him but I can't take the chance. It's not fair to either of us."

Kurt nodded, turning his hand around under Shane's and giving his a little squeeze. "I really am sorry about all this. I _know_ none of it was my fault but I'm still sorry. No one deserves to be cheated on."

"Thanks, Kurt."

"You're welcome."

"Are you going to be all right?" Shane asked, taking his hand off Kurt's and standing up.

His eyebrow arched up again in confusion. "Do you need a ride home or something?" Shane reiterated.

"Oh! Oh no, I'll be fine. Thank you though."

Shane nodded, grabbing his backpack up off the floor. He extended a hand in the fashionista's direction. "I'm in no mood to wish _anyone_ a Happy Valentine's Day, so how about Happy Friendship Day?"

Kurt smiled brightly as he accepted Shane's offered hand in his own. "Happy Friendship Day, Shane."

The athlete shook Kurt's hand before throwing a wave over his shoulder and leaving the countertenor alone in the classroom. "Happy Friendship Day, Kurt."

Glasz eyes followed the jock out the door and Kurt felt better about both his problems and having helped someone over theirs.

_Friendship Day, huh? I could get into that better than Valentine's Day._

Still smiling, Kurt sat up and walked out of the classroom, feeling he deserved a reward of ice cream and a hot bubble bath for what he did.

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><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: Okay, it's all done now so please lemme know what you thought. Your reviews, alerts, favorites and PMs continually fuel my creativity and make me feel better as a writer knowing what you the readers think. Also, follow me on Twitter if you want. I can be found under AirNationOracle ^^ Also my default pic on Twitter is the same here on FF. I hope to hear from you!

Chris Colfer's a love; Chord Overstreet is sex on legs. I'll stick with the love… for now! Please review and show me some ^^


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